Another 10 children with polio in Indonesia

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says another ten children have contracted polio in Indonesia, which brings the number affected by the outbreak of the paralysing disease to 65.

According to the WHO a fresh round of immunisation is being carried out this week which will target 6.4 million children in West Java, Banten and Jakarta provinces.

The ten new confirmed polio cases are in Western Java and Banten provinces, but WHO says the circulation of wild polio virus could also be occurring in other provinces in Indonesia.

The disease, which was considered eradicated in Indonesia, can cause irreversible paralysis in a matter of hours, and re-emerged last month.

Indonesia had been polio-free since 1995.

The first case was near the West Java city of Sukabumi, 100 km south of Jakarta.

The United Nations health agency says one case was reported last week from Demak district in Central Java, a hitherto unaffected province, which lies outside the area where a first round of immunisation was held a month ago.

The WHO says a genetic analysis of the virus in Indonesia has shown it originated in west Africa and is similar to that found in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, and probably travelled through Sudan.

Indonesian health officials believe the virus may have been carried by a migrant worker or a Haj pilgrim who visited Saudi Arabia before returning to Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation.